Ask Lemmy

And open the door to thousands different atrocities committed by thousands of different people

I feel you're very optimistic if you think that single key people made all the difference in the world and that without them, no other key people would have stepped up

"Aaron Schwarz get the fuck out of that IT cabinet. We need to go to Cincinatti zoo and put a bulletproof vest on a gorilla."

my uncle. because he would have beat my fathers ass for the disrespect he showed my mother.

I would never have been born, and thus never would be alive in this timeline.

bonus, I get to personally test my theories about paradoxes.

John Brown

Probably Elliott Smith, though I don't think he'd want it.

My little brother

If we're just talking famous people and not family/people I knew, Douglas Adams. I don't like living in a world where Douglas Adams dies at 49 and Henry Kissenger lives to be 100.

My grandfather. I think he would have beat my father's ass for how poorly I was treated.

...i think if yitzhak rabin hadn't been assassinated, the trajectory of twenty-first-century globalism would have been very different, potentially sustaining the progressive momentum mustered in the early nineties...

(not that he was personally responsible for that trajectory, but the butterfly-effect tendrils of his assassination run deep and wide)

My wife's father. He committed suicide back in 2019 after a few years of him getting more and more distant and depressed. Of course it is a gamble since we do believe it was his brain deteriorating kind of similar to what Robin Williams had, but at the same time i also believe he was kind of miserable having to deal with his family's problems which consisted of his 3 daughters and his wifes issues. A week after he passed his wife was then diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she also passed within 3 months as well. It was a crazy year to say the least. I just wonder so much what he would have done if he was alive to see his wifes passing if that would have changed his decision because i really feel like if he knew he no longer had to take care of her he wouldnt have had to worry so much about living out his life in fear of running out of money anymore and that he may have finally been able to do what he wanted to do which i think he felt trapped.

My son. It would likely only delay his death, as he was determined to end his life. Even off it was only for one day, it would give me another chance to let him know i loved him, to let his younger siblings see him one last time.

In terms of US History, Abraham Lincoln, by far. What a completely different country this would be today. Or at least would have had a good chance to be.

Lincoln's.

I've no idea whether Reconstruction would've been successful with him at the helm, but it almost certainly would've gone better.

My friend, Chris, who ended his life. It's been years, but I'd give just about anything to have him back.

Harambe.

Sun Yat Sen (孫中山)

I wonder if my birth country would've been in a better place, be making more friends in the world instead of antagonizing everyone like PRC and CCP is doing, destroying the reputation of my people abroad, and causing widespread Sinophobia.

Aaron Swartz.

My late father. He passed away July 21, 2014.

Back in January that year, I came home from work, and he told me that he made some eggs and grits. But when he ate it, it was too hot, but his reflexes made him swallow it anyways. Which basically boiled his insides.. ☹️

He refused to let me call emergency services, hell he even told me that if I did so without his permission, he would shoot them, and yes he slept on a couch loaded with multiple guns under the couch cushions. He even threatened to kill me if I called emergency services without his permission.

5 months in, I realized that daddy wasn't gonna recover, as he was seeking cell phone signal the morning before I was about to head out to work. Daddy like never called anybody, so when I saw him seeking a good cell signal, I asked him if he wanted me to step out and call 911 myself.

He said, and I quote, "Hold the fuck on, I'm getting ready"

Needless to say, I missed work that day. I got him to the hospital, where he lived for another month or so, but passed away because he didn't tend to his health back in January when the situation happened.

I'd write out more about this, but it's too sad for me to think more on.

Damnit daddy, I coulda saved you, if you weren't so stubborn!

☹️😭💀

Terry Fox. One of humanity's gems.

RBG. I wound have forced her to resign.

Mine and my family's. I don't know how to cope with and accept the finality of life. Hope ghosts are allowed here.

Think I’d have gone with saving my grandmother from cancer when my dad was 4, hopefully if they caught it early enough she would’ve lived and my grandfather wouldn’t become a twisted abusive man and my dad could’ve had a normal upbringing. Maybe then he would be reasonable enough to stay in contact with.

Fred Hampton. I don't mean to pass over other civil rights martyrs, but the Black Panthers were something special. Real revolutionary politics, organised, and taking direct action; the high-water mark of leftest politics in modern America.

Martin Luther King maybe?

My dad. Fuck cancer.

My best buddy who feel asleep at the wheel 2km from his destination.
Could've been there with him to keep him awake 1 more minute. Or drive. Or maybe I'd have died with them.
I've stopped asking myself "what if", I'll never know, but I miss you buddy.

Probably this guy. Hopefully prevent a lot of pointless bloodshed

Kurt Cobain

My mom's

I would travel back in time and prevent the deaths of all the other sperms in the load that became Justice John Roberts Jr. If only one of those other sperms got into that egg.

This court Jester that thinks that 12 years after civil rights and voting rights were extended to black people, that there was no racism to deal with anymore and has been trying to overturn them until he succeeded this time.

I know it's not really that important in the scheme of things but probably Chris Cornell which would hopefully also save Chester Bennington. Quite selfish of me but that's what first came to my mind.

Have you watched the Stephen King movie about that?

Is JFK not in the conversation?

Mako